Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. I write about what’s happening in the NBA daily. Hey! We’re in the playoffs now!
The Hawks are shockingly one win away from the East Finals.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Bill Streicher/USA Today.)
I don’t even know how to go about this. On both games, really. But let’s talk about the Hawks winning Game 5 because this was simply inexplicable.
The Sixers absolutely dominated the first half. Joel Embiid looked much more spry than he did in the second half of Game 4. He even went 8 for 8 in the first quarter. With the Sixers leading by 14 after the first quarter, we thought we were heading for a blowout.
It was much of the same in the second quarter. The Hawks got so desperate that they decided to start fouling Ben Simmons. Simmons would go 2 for 8 from the line in that period. At the time, it didn’t seem like a big deal. The Sixers led by 26 but a free throw by Trae Young and a John Collins three cut the lead to 22. Again, not that big of a deal.
Even the third quarter felt like all Philly. And, yeah, you can’t exactly blame the Sixers taking it easy; when you have big leads, you tend to relax. Besides, the Sixers were able to get Bogdan Bogdanovic in foul trouble. And Seth Curry was on fire. The Sixers led by 18 going into the fourth and it seems like it’s going to be a cruise from there.
The cruise turned into a bumpy road trip that would end in disaster.
The Hawks rang off 7 straight points as the Sixers started to miss shots. Doc Rivers put his starters back in when that happened. Curry made a shot to stop the bleeding. I guess we’re okay, right?
The Sixers weren’t exactly making great offense. Lou Williams, former Sixer, put the pressure on by making shot after shot. And then the Sixers started settling for jumpers. After Lou’s three, John Collins made a banked three to make the game single digits. Uh-oh.
Philly still held a 104-94 lead with four minutes and change left. Then somehow, Philly forgot how to score. Then Trae kept making buckets. Finally, Matisse Thybulle fouled Young on a three-pointer. Trae made all three foul shots to give the Hawks the lead.
The Sixers STILL hadn’t scored in about three minutes by that point. Danilo Gallinari made a tough fadeaway to give Atlanta a three-point lead. Embiid got fouled but then choked hard by missing both foul shots. Young added to the lead with MADE free throws and Seth Curry’s jumper provided the final tally.
It’s just amazing. There’s not much you can say here except that the Sixers blew it. It’s looking more and more reminiscent of the Clippers from last season when they blew double digit leads in Games 5, 6, and 7 against Denver. This has nothing to do with coaching, right, since Doc Rivers (who coached the Clips last season) is in the helm for Philly?
Either way, the Hawks stayed resilient. They came back from 18 down in Game 4. And this was an even bigger feat; they came back from 26 down in PHILLY.
Trae Young was huge with 39 points. Collins had 19 points and 11 boards. Gallinari scored 16 off the bench while Lou scored 13 of his 15 in the fourth quarter. All of this with Bogdanovic having played only 21 minutes and scoring 6 points. I mean, Embiid went for 37-13-5 and Seth Curry had a career-best 36 points. But no one else in Philly scored double figures.
How are the Hawks one win away from the East Finals? And are we on a verge of an immense choke job by the Sixers?
The series still isn’t over. Sixers can still win the last two games. But Atlanta is definitely on the driver’s seat here. And I never thought I would say that this deep in the playoffs.
Bullet Passes
Kawhi Leonard might be out for the foreseeable future with an ACL injury after a bit of a collision with Joe Ingles in Game 4. (By the way, Mike Conley was still out for this game.)
BUT NEVER FEAR. PLAYOFF P IS HERE.
After taking an early lead, the Clippers got a huge third quarter, limiting the Jazz to 18 points. George was brilliant all night, going for 37-16-5. Marcus Morris went for 25 and Reggie Jackson scored 22. A big three-point play by George with under two minutes left sealed the deal for the Clippers.
Suddenly, the Clippers themselves are one win away from the conference finals. But they were in the same position last year. Hopefully, they can put it away at home and go to their first conference finals in history.
As for the Jazz? Another potential what-if story, really. It’s clear they’ve missed Conley. Maybe he’ll come back in time for Game 6. Maybe be a decoy. Maybe be an inspiration. Hamstrings work funny, as we’ve mentioned, so going out there is a risk.
But maybe that risk is what the Jazz need. It’s all or nothing now.
So a lot’s happened. We mentioned Kawhi Leonard’s injury. Well, Chris Paul has tested positive on COVID. And he’s vaccinated, too. So we have no idea when Paul will be available to play again. It’s possible he could play at the start of the series. But the situation is very fluid.
LaMelo Ball won Rookie of the Year. Pretty convincingly, really, and I am shocked by the voting here.
The voting for ROY of the year wasn’t particularly close. LaMelo Ball won fairly easily pic.twitter.com/ORBQpYsxy9
— Robert Littal BSO (@BSO) June 16, 2021
I really thought Anthony Edwards had it wrapped up, mainly due to availability. But it shows you how much I know.
A lot of coaching changes are going to occur.
First off, the Pelicans dismissed Stan Van Gundy after one year. It’s really disappointing considering they have a star in Zion Williamson and a very good coach in SVG. In the end, it wasn’t a great match.
The Wizards and Scott Brooks are done. They said they couldn’t come to a mutual agreement. So the Wiz are moving on to someone new.
The Mavericks are cleaning house. There was said to be some turmoil in upper management between famous gambler-turned-exec Haralabos Voulgaris and longtime GM Donnie Nelson. First off, Nelson left the Mavs. It was also mentioned that Voulgaris was also gone.
But the kicker here is that Rick Carlisle, after 13 years as Mavs head coach, has left. There is said to be some disagreements with Luka Doncic and now it’s about having a fresh start and keeping Doncic happy. But what a heck of a turnaround.
Finally, of course, I’m seeing stupid comments about how Zion and Luka are moving on to another team.
Dude, they have huge contract extensions coming up. I’d be shocked if they decided to NOT sign extensions (which can be worth in the neighborhood of $30 million more if they stayed with their own team) with their respective squads. They ain’t going to New York in the near future. Shut up.
NBA Playoff Scoreboard
June 16, 2021
NBA Playoff Series Count
EAST
#5 Hawks lead #1 Sixers, 3-2.
#2 Nets lead #3 Bucks, 3-2.
#1 Sixers defeat #8 Wizards, 4-1.
#5 Hawks defeat #4 Knicks, 4-1.
#2 Nets defeat #7 Celtics, 4-1.
#3 Bucks defeat #6 Heat, 4-0.
WEST
#4 Clippers lead #1 Jazz, 3-2.
#2 Suns defeat #3 Nuggets, 4-0.
#1 Jazz defeat #8 Grizzlies, 4-1.
#4 Clippers defeat #5 Mavericks, 4-3.
#2 Suns defeat #7 Lakers, 4-2.
#3 Nuggets defeat #6 Blazers, 4-2.
Watch This Play
HUGE play by Terrence Mann to pad the Clippers lead late. What a difficult dunk this was.
— Viral Sports (@NotScTop10plays) June 17, 2021
What a crazy couple of days the NBA has had.
Everyone, please take care of yourselves during this pandemic. And that goes for everyone involved with the NBA as well.
You can find Rey-Rey on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
You can also check out Rey-Rey’s podcast, Rey-Rey Is Fundamental, for more basketball content and, really, whatever else.
R.I.P. Nala.